Decay

There's a large variety of reasons why they may not be able to give copies to backers yet, both business and technical. SP has nothing to gain by delaying the release, and are probably losing money because of this. I'm sure they want this released more than anyone.

Instead of using character traits, try using the Soldier Heroine tag: https://vndb.org/g121

Don't expect it until this fall at the absolute earliest.

Guys, I think we were all wrong about Katanas after all.

Retrans was at least partially responsible for the absolutely terrible Flyable Hearts machine tl.

Pretty rich considering who it was coming from.

Where have we heard this concept before, I wonder? http://en.frontwing.jp/games/purino-party/ It's being developed in Japan by Front Wing and yeah, it looks like a HuniePop clone featuring girls from their Innocent Girl/Pure Girl nukige series. They are planning an international release on Steam this June, that's just a couple months away! No Audrey, No buy.

I would argue that user scores are NEVER a good indicator for quality.

The bayesian rating takes into account the number of votes. So even if the actual average stays the same, as long as more people vote that way, the bayesian rating rises. Although from what I can tell, the actual average has risen by about 0.20 in the last few weeks.

The download version is up: https://www.jastusa.com/seinarukana-the-spirit-of-eternity-sword-2.html It's the same price as the physical, so unless you want to save on shipping or play it right now, you should probably just get that.

Little Busters, kinda.

It being different wouldn't normally be a problem. The issue is that BDO was impenetrable, just extremely inaccessible. I'd be okay with a more sandboxy mmo in its style if I didn't have to do extensive out of game research just to learn the absolute basics, and if I didn't have to fight with the interface at every step of the way. Part of this was thanks to the abominably bad translation. The general combat-oriented questing experience was total shit, too, so the combat half was grindy and the crafting/trading/sandbox half was incomprehensible.

I tried out this MMO called Black Desert Online recently but it was too weird for me.

Well, that's to be expected since neither Insem or Oxford Comma finished it, either. If people want the best experience, they should just wait, anyways.

Wait really? Yeah, really: https://www.reddit.com/r/visualnovels/comments/4fnyu7/seinarukana_spirit_of_eternity_sword_2_has_shipped/ Seinarukana is the semi-sequel to Aselia the Eternal, an RPG/VN hybrid that received a fan translation and a subsequent official release years ago. Here's a description courtesy of Sanahtlig: You do not need to have played Aselia first, the stories are mostly unrelated and I believe that if any of its characters make an appearance, it's pretty much just cameos. The gameplay is somewhat akin to a turn-based Ogre Battle if you've ever played those. The basis of the battles isn't a group of adventurers going on a journey and encountering monsters, but instead you control an armed force who does battle with other militarized entities, sort of like an SRPG. You move multiple parties of characters along a series of interconnected pathways and when they meet an enemy, they carry out actions in a mostly hands-off manner in accordance to the party's formation. To be perfectly honest, I did prefer the Ogre Battle games to Aselia, but I still had some fun with it. It's been in the works for ages, has been the subject of derisive jokes due to its many, many delays, but it's finally here. Kind of. I have confirmation from JAST that they're shipping out copies. We got notification a couple weeks ago that it went golden master, and just last week they said it was duplicating, but it still sort of feels like they just stealthily slipped this one out to us. It seems like they didn't want to miss a release date, so they simply never publicly set one. You can order a physical version on J-List (referral link is fuwanovel's, not mine) and get your copy shipped out now or very soon. The download version will also be made available very soon according to my JAST contact. He didn't give me an exact date but it sounds like within the next day or two. So, yeah. Surprise! It's here! edit: Download version is now available! https://www.jastusa.com/seinarukana-the-spirit-of-eternity-sword-2.html

Their tracker page doesn't reflect games that don't use their universal translation and editing system. Hmm, I don't remember if they said anything more specific about WagaHigh. I don't think they did, but I still suspect that it's pretty far along. They've said elsewhere that they've done a lot of translation in tandem with the development. When they first announced it, it sounded like they were initially gunning for a near-simultaneous launch, but I guess now we're waiting until at least AX, since they're saying we won't hear more about it until then.

I thought the VN mode was cut from all Melty Blood versions past the first couple.

Like all major VN localization companies, Sekai Project makes heavy use of freelancers, and the number of people working for them at any given time is in a high state of flux. I have no idea how many people are with them right now or anything like that. It's a decent number, though.

I'm guessing it's some business bullshit with Regista/Yeti that they legitimately can't talk about.

Well, more accurately, it's the only title of theirs that has an 18+ version in Japan but hasn't gotten one in the west. They tried, but AkabeiSoft2 shut them down.

SP had a livestream today where they answered a bunch of questions from their forums and stream chat. I'll list off the highlights: 1) Uncensored/uncut Maitetsu release: This was like the third question asked. "We definitely have something to announce by Anime Expo or sooner, we're just working out the logistics." I doubt the announcement they're hyping up will be "lol steam only." They recognized that it's controversial content, but said "we're working on it." "The intent is to bring Maitetsu over as best we can." 2) Kokonoe Kokoro (oh god why): engine issues are holding it back. 3) Dovac's favorite game of all time is Final Fantasy 8. wtf. 4) G-senjou 18+ version: akabeisoft just doesn't seem to like it? SP proposed it but got shot down. 5) One of the biggest takeaways of the stream is that if you want something, just ask for it. Post about it on SP's forums, try to rally others to support the thread, that kind of thing. Japanese companies tend to need strong evidence of fan desire before they act on something. Basically, my interpretation of this is that instead of just sitting on some dark corner of the internet calling them idiots and criminals, actually attempting to open a dialogue and trying to reach out to the people making the decisions is a million times more effective at making a difference. 6) Tenshin Ranman: "It's just sitting there." 16% translated, they want it to get further before they start promoting it. 18+ maybe. My interpretation is that they seem to be stretched a bit thin and simply haven't really started that in earnest yet. 7) Wagamama High Spec: One guy said that 18+ version is going to happen and there will be more info at Anime Expo, another said that it's still in discussion. The developer seems interested in pushing the all-ages version first and foremost, in order to cross-promote with the anime (which will obviously not be 18+). 8 ) Chrono Clock: Only about 10% done. They didn't have the engine code and had to do extensive assembly hacking to get it to work right in English. 9) Other Unison Shift titles: Focusing on Ley Line for now. They only just announced it and seem to still be working out the particulars of the deal. Flyaaabbleee Heaaarrttt. 10) Grisaia no Meikyuu: As their latest KS update indicates, engine differences are causing the 18+ version to be postponed, and some of the 18+ content is still being translated. It will lag a month or so behind. 11) Root Double: They can't say much, it's "complicated," they're working on it, Soon™. 12) Console versions: They have Vita and PS4 devkits, they're working on some console versions (no word on if that extends beyond the KS stretch goals they've met). Very often, console versions of VNs are published by different companies than the original creators of the PC versions, and require you to either establish seperate licensing deals which may not be possible, or do the ports themselves, which they presumably don't have infinite skilled manpower for. 3DS has weird software limitations. 13) Someone basically asked about Kindred Spirits and Gahkthun being on steam and if that will influence to SP re-evaluating their censorship policies. So, the transcript SP provides basically shuts down the question and says that they have their own guidelines they'll follow, but the stream got into a lot more detail. Essentially, they've taken notice of Gahkthun getting rated by the ESRB and releasing on Steam, and said that they're looking into that route, but it could also backfire if they rate a game AO and suddenly Sony is asking questions about whatever console ports they may be working on. They also said that in general, they've been relaxing the content guidelines a lot in recent times. Whereas before Sakura Spirit was scandalous, now it seems rather mundane. They said they have some possible controversial content coming to Steam in the future. 14) Alternative pricing models: A "recent example of bad DLC segmentation" (Sharin no Kuni) is something they wouldn't ever willingly do. In the case of G-Senjou no Maou, the voiced/unvoiced versions was something AkabeiSoft2 thought would really help, and the buying habits for that title seemed to have somewhat reinforced that belief. According to them, it used to be an even more drastic split and SP had to talk them down. AkabeiSoft seems to really like doing that kind of feature segmentation.

It doesn't need to fail, it needs to change.

Hollywood ending? What? Is that part of the anime?

Yeah, overall it's a very well-composed and professional looking campaign, and it seems to be more about kickstarting FW as a localization company than SnK itself.